Colombia peace prospects echo faintly in conflict zone

Representatives of the Colombian government and the main leftist rebels, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), are set to begin talks this week in Norway, seeking an end to their long-running conflict. But how are the peace moves affecting the people who live in the midst of the violence?

The slope is so steep that I feel like getting off my mule. But maybe that's not such a good idea.

After all, she is the one who really knows this trail, which goes deep inside the mountains of Cauca, into the heartland of the Colombian armed conflict.

We have been riding for hours, in a landscape of steep green hills and deep canyons that disappear into the horizon.

And I know that behind these mountains there are still more mountains and, eventually, the Pacific Ocean.

I have many times described this south-western region as a key corridor for drug trafficking and one of the strongholds of the Farc, the Marxist guerrilla group that has been fighting the Colombian state for 48 years.

And now I'm here to find out what people think about the peace talks set to begin in Oslo.